In a wood-paneled room, beneath a silver disco ball, Linda McCreary remembers the dinner dances and Sunday brunches that once filled Oak Tree Country Club, an aging family-owned clubhouse where she and her neighbors used to meet.
"It's old. Nothing fancy. Really low-key," Oak Tree resident McCreary said recently, looking around the clubhouse that overlooks a public golf course in Oakland Park.
The quiet golf lovers' haven at 2400 W. Prospect Road is about to change.
Golf great Jack Nicklaus is teaming up with a Fort Lauderdale developer to transform the 45-year-old Oak Tree property into an exclusive golfing community that will offer some of the city's priciest properties.
The proposed development will offer 30 town homes selling for up to $700,000, and will border Broward County's first Nicklaus-designed course. The clubhouse in which McCreary stood is expected to be demolished to make way for a 10,000- square-foot facility where memberships will cost a one-time fee of $65,000, plus annual dues.
The proposed club will be called St. Regis Golf Club and Lodge while the course will be renamed Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course, joining 230 of his other courses worldwide. The development is expected to open next summer.
"This will basically bring in a whole new era of wealth and money into eastern Broward County," said club manager Michael Broad, whose grandfather, Howard Broad, purchased the golf course in 1959. "[Nicklaus] is considered the gold standard in golf."
Fort Lauderdale developer John McDonald, who is building the clubhouse and town homes, says the property will boost Oakland Park's ongoing redevelopment.
"[The city] has a clear vision of what it's trying to become," said McDonald, who is spending $33 million to build the property. "They're trying to improve the quality of life for residents. Having this type of property within city limits will be good for everyone."
City officials eagerly await the prestige of having Nicklaus' name linked to Oakland Park. "We've been working to entice high-end development to our city," Commissioner Don Migliore said. "This is a real coup for us."
The development will draw a new wave of wealth into Oakland Park, said real estate agent Hugh McKerlie, who works for Fort Lauderdale's Galleria Collection of Fine Homes.
"This is setting a new benchmark [for the city]," he said.
St. Regis should be popular among buyers because golf course real estate is rare in eastern Broward County, McKerlie added.
"And to live on a golf course being revamped by Jack [Nicklaus] will definitely draw people to the area," he said.
But not all residents will be playing at the new state-of-the-art course, because of the higher membership fees.
McCreary, who drives around Oak Tree on her red golf cart with "Linda" printed on the side in gold letters, said she loves the idea of having a Nicklaus course in her backyard -- but it's too pricey for her to play on it.
Next year she and her husband, Mac, will head to Woodlands, a Tamarac country club, where most of her golfing buddies will be, she said.
"Even if we could afford it, we wouldn't belong there," McCreary, a 6-year resident, said of the new club. "It will be very high-end ... not our style. You go where your friends go. I used to know every golfer that teed off. It's not like that anymore."
Driving her cart through Oak Tree's rolling emerald hills, she said, "I'll miss this very much."
Resident David Struve plans to join St. Regis and said he looks forward to the changes.
"The overall reaction from the community has been positive," said Struve, who is president of Oak Tree's homeowners association. "It's a wonderful project and it's going to enhance our home values greatly. And of course, Jack [Nicklaus] is a hero."
Residents who join the new club will also have access to another St. Regis development being developed by McDonald, a 24-story tower featuring a European spa on Fort Lauderdale beach. That $140 million project is set to open in May.
McDonald said the Fort Lauderdale spa and Nicklaus course are being marketed together to a wealthy, worldwide clientele -- a major plug for Oakland Park.
"Every time we advertise St. Regis, we're mentioning Oakland Park too," he said. "It will bring a lot of visibility to the city."
Source: Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)
